Connecting the cosmic web to the spin of dark haloes: implications for galaxy formation

By S. Codis, C. Pichon, J. Devriendt, A. Slyz, D. Pogosyan, Y. Dubois, Thierry Sousbie. 2012

222 citations recorded by the source corpus.

We investigate the alignment of the spin of dark matter halos relative (i) to the surrounding large-scale filamentary structure, and (ii) to the tidal tensor eigenvectors using the Horizon 4π dark matter simulation which resolves over 43 million dark matter halos at redshift zero. We detect a clear mass transition: the spin of dark matter halos above a critical massM s 0 ≈ 5(±1) �10 12 M⊙ tends to be perpendicular to the closest large scale filament (with an excess probability up to 12%), and aligned with the intermediate axis of the tidal tensor (with an excess probability of up to 40%), whereas the spin of low-mass halos is more likely to be aligned with the closest filament (with an excess probability up to 15%). Furthermore, this critical mass is redshift-dependent, scaling as M s (z) ≈ M s �(1 +z) −γs with γs = 2.5 ± 0.2. A similar fit for the redshift evolution of the tidal tensor transition mass yields M t ≈ 8(±2) �10 12 M⊙ and γt = 3 ± 0.3. This critical mass also varies weakly with the scale defining filaments. We propose an interpretation of this signal in terms of large-scale cosmic flows. In this picture,most low-mass halos areformed through the winding offlows embedded in misaligned walls; hence they acquire a spin parallel to the axis of the resulting filaments forming at the intersection of these walls. On the other hand, more massive halos are typically the products of later mergers along such filaments, and thus they acquire a spin perpendicular to this direction when their orbital angular momentum is converted into spin. We show that this scenario is consistent with both the measured excess probabilities of alignment w.r.t. the eigen-directions of the tidal tensor, and halo merger histories. On a more qualitative level, it also seems compatible with 3D visualization of the structure of the cosmic web as traced by “smoothed” dark matter simulations or gas tracer particles. Finally, it provides extra support to the disc forming paradigm presented by Pichon et al. (2011) as it extends it by characterizing the geometry of secondary infall at high redshift.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Instrumentation

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/a4c3a837f07781bc05d677e5131e4450fff31f54

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ANGULAR MOMENTUM AND GALAXY FORMATION REVISITED (2012, background): “…2012) as well as to higher-redshift galaxies (cf. Puech et al. 2007; Burkert et al. 2010), to freshly accreted material within galaxies (cf. Stewart et al. 2011), and to the orientations of the j⋆ vectors (e.g., Codis et al. 2012; Tempel et al. 2012), would provide additional, valuable diagnostics.”
THE COSMOS2015 CATALOG: EXPLORING THE 1 < z < 6 UNIVERSE WITH HALF A MILLION GALAXIES (2016, background): “In particular, the vorticity-rich filaments (Libeskind et al. 2013; Laigle et al. 2015) are the locus where low-mass galaxies steadily grow in mass via quasi-polar cold gas accretion, while their angular momentum (spin) is aligned with host filaments (Codis et al. 2012, 2015).”
Evolution of the cosmic web (2014, background): “…correlation between halo shape and spin orientations and the directions of filaments and walls (Altay, Colberg & Croft 2006; Aragón-Calvo et al. 2007b; Hahn et al. 2007a,b, 2009; Paz, Stasyszyn & Padilla 2008; Zhang et al. 2009; Codis et al. 2012; Libeskind et al. 2013a; Aragon-Calvo & Yang 2014).”
Four phases of angular-momentum buildup in high-z galaxies: from cosmic-web streams through an extended ring to disc and bulge (2014, background): “This can be interpreted as generated by asymmetric flows from voids and sheets into the streams from the transverse directions to the streams (Pichon et al. 2011; Codis et al. 2012).”
Detecting filamentary pattern in the cosmic web: a catalogue of filaments for the SDSS (2013, background): “…haloes is correlated with the underlying web elements (Navarro, Abadi & Steinmetz 2004; Aragón-Calvo et al. 2007a; Brunino et al. 2007; Zhang et al. 2009; Hahn, Teyssier & Carollo 2010; Codis et al. 2012; Libeskind et al. 2012, 2013; Aragón-Calvo 2013; Trowland, Lewis & Bland-Hawthorn 2013).”
Evidence for spin alignment of spiral and elliptical/S0 galaxies in filaments (2012, background): “…the correlation of spin axes of dark matter haloes with filaments (sheets) is halo mass dependent (Aragón-Calvo et al. 2007b; Zhang et al. 2009; Codis et al. 2012; Trowland et al. 2012): spin axes of low-mass haloes tend to lie parallel to the filaments, while high-mass haloes have an…”
Wet Disc Contraction to Galactic Blue Nuggets and Quenching to Red Nuggets (2013, background): “On the other hand, the baryons exchange angular momentum with the dark matter due to strong torques as they stream in (Pichon et al. 2011; Kimm et al. 2011; Tillson et al. 2012; Codis et al. 2012; Danovich et al. 2012; Stewart et al. 2013, M. Danovich et al. in preparation).”
Tracing the cosmic web (2017, background): “…scale filamentary structure, which indeed currently is an active subject of investigation (e.g. Aragón-Calvo et al. 2007b; Lee & Pen 2000; Jones et al. 2010; Codis et al. 2012; Tempel et al. 2013; Libeskind et al. 2013a; Tempel & Libeskind 2013; Trowland et al. MNRAS 000, 000–000 (0000) Table 1.”
Modelling and interpreting spectral energy distributions of galaxies with BEAGLE (2016, background): “…mechanisms (e.g. tidal or ram-pressure stripping, strangulation; e.g. Lagos et al. 2014; Rafieferantsoa et al. 2015), and through its influence on the merger rate (e.g. Lackner et al. 2012; Rafieferantsoa et al. 2015) and galactic spins (e.g. Hahn, Teyssier & Carollo 2010; Codis et al. 2012).”
Star formation sustained by gas accretion (2014, background): “Codis et al. (2012), Laigle et al. (2013), and Dubois et al. (2014) show from cosmological simulations that low mass galaxies, which tend to be disklike, spin in a direction that is aligned to their accretion filaments, but high-mass spheroidal galaxies spin perpendicular to their filaments.”
The Intrinsic Alignment of Galaxies and its Impact on Weak Gravitational Lensing in an Era of Precision Cosmology (2014, background): “nments) with local ﬁlaments of large-scale structure, while high-mass galaxy spins tend to be aligned perpendicularly to the ﬁlaments. A transition mass of M= 3 × 1010M⊙ is identiﬁed, consistent with Codis et al. (2012). The high-mass galaxy misalignment is due to the merger of galaxies and was sugg”
Dancing in the dark: galactic properties trace spin swings along the cosmic web (2014, background): “For instance, the (mis)alignment signal between haloes and filaments (Codis et al. 2012) or that between the large-scale vorticity and filaments (Laigle et al. 2013) are respectively of somewhat (∼15 per cent) and significantly (∼100 per cent) larger amplitudes.”
Spin alignments within the cosmic web: a theory of constrained tidal torques near filaments (2015, methodology): “It has been shown in simulations (Bailin & Steinmetz 2005; Aragón-Calvo et al. 2007; Paz et al. 2008; Zhang et al. 2009; Codis et al. 2012; Libeskind et al. 2013; Forero-Romero et al. 2014, among others) that the spin of dark haloes is correlated to the direction of the filaments of the cosmic web…”